From Ancient Cham to Modern Dialects: Two Thousand Years of Language Contact and Change
‘ The Chamic languages have an incredibly rich story to tell, one that may ultimately prove more valuable to historians of language than the archaeological records will prove to archaeologists,’ notes the author, a renowned linguist.
Even if this study is aimed at strictly linguistical research, it contains important insights related to the history of pre-Angkorian Cambodian: ‘ The first Austronesian incursions onto the mainland must have immediately brought them into contact with Mon-Khmer speakers. [Some have argued] that the first contact was probably not along the Vietnamese coast facing the South China Sea, but rather at Funan, facing the Gulf of Thailand, around 500 BC , or perhaps even earlier-at the site at Oc-eo, the port city of Funan. By the middle of the sixth century, Funan had been conquered by the Khmers, but [it has been suggested that] earlier Funan was Austronesian speaking.’
While Sankrit and Pali influences on Old Khmer language have been thoroughly studied, the Austronesian influences are abundant, and are evidenced by the languages still spoken by ethnic minorities in Cambodia, Thailand, Vietnam or Myanmar.
